How to Make a Code of Conduct Form + Free Template

As a business owner, member of an HR department, or hiring manager, you know how important it is to ensure employees and new hires understand your company’s values and expectations. Having them sign a code of conduct form ensures they understand and agree to your standards for their behavior at work.

Learn how to easily collect these signatures with digital forms, and use our code of conduct form template as a starting point.

Code of Conduct Form FAQs

Sometimes referred to as an employee code of ethics, code of conduct policies outline the expected behaviors for employees within an organization. These policies often detail appropriate and ethical behaviors for areas like communication, use of company resources, decision-making, etc.

No, your business is not required to have a code of conduct. However, it is best practice to have employees sign one in order to:

Establish clear guidelines for ethical behavior as an employee at your company
Promote compliance with laws and industry standards
Cultivate a positive work environment
Help employees understand what you expect of them
Educate employees on your values

While they are still not required, nonprofit organizations should strongly consider creating a code of conduct policy and having each staff member agree to it. This will ensure that each staff member behaves in ways that uphold the nonprofit’s beliefs and mission.

Your code of conduct form will differ depending on the sector you operate in, but generally, these policies should include:

Your company’s name
An introduction that describes the purpose of the code of conduct
A summary of your core mission, values, and ethics
A section outlining professional behavior and workplace etiquette
A clause or section emphasizing employees’ responsibility to comply with laws and industry regulations
Expectations around managing confidential information
A section defining what constitutes a conflict of interest and how to avoid them
Details on how company property and resources are to be used
Signature and date fields for employees to complete

Ensure the form is tailored to the person signing it. For example, nonprofit organizations might create separate code of conduct forms for salaried employees and volunteers.

The largest companies in the world have robust code of conduct policies that their employees must agree to. Here are a few examples:

Microsoft — Standards of Business Conduct
Nike — Code of Conduct
Google — Code of Conduct

We’ve also put together a template you can use to get started. Pull inspiration from the form below, but make sure to collaborate with stakeholders and a lawyer when writing the code of conduct itself.

How to Create Your Code of Conduct Form

The first step to creating an employee code of conduct form is choosing reliable software that will fully digitize the process. Smartwaiver’s digital forms make it easy to create, customize, share, and store code of conduct forms.

Being able to manage this process 100% online makes collecting signatures painless for your staff and its employees, and you can rest assured that signed forms are stored in a secure database. Here’s how it works when you choose Smartwaiver:

Collect Code of Conduct Signatures with Smartwaiver's Top Digital Form Features

Waiver Editor

Create custom digital forms in Smartwaiver’s robust editor tool. Add custom questions and fields, embed training videos, and flag required fields to get the information you need.

Centralized Database

Every signed code of conduct form will live on one unified platform. Easily track down specific forms by searching last names, birth dates, or custom tags.

Secure Storage

We set high standards for security. Equipped with advanced encryption, 2FA, and SOC 2 Type II compliance, you can rest assured that your data is safe with Smartwaiver.

User Management Tools

Control who can access and edit forms by assigning role-based access permissions to staff members.

Sync Saved Forms

Signed forms are automatically saved on the cloud, eliminating time spent organizing files. Export the data as CSV files or individual PDFs.

Unmatched Support

Smartwaiver offers a dedicated team of U.S.-based customer support specialists who are ready to help.

Hear From Our Customers

Smartwaiver is hands down the best solution out there. They helped us collect tens of thousands of legal documents in a week. The service worked flawlessly.

Chris Garrity Head of Innovation, Super Bowl 50 Host Committee

Get Started Today With a Free Trial

Create your code of conduct policy, collect employee signatures, and securely store the forms—all from Smartwaiver.

How to Make a Code of Conduct Form + Free Template

Code of Conduct Form FAQs

What is an employee code of conduct?

Does my business need to have a code of conduct or code of ethics?

What should a code of conduct form include?

What is an example of a code of conduct form?